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[Q] Locking Phone to WCDMA

I am having an issue locking the phone to WCDMA. I live an area where the EDGE signal is stronger and it constantly drops 3G. After rooting the phone, I locked it into WCDMA and it would stick all the time, even dropping all signal when I moved into an area with only GSM coverage. However, somewhere along the line, I've lost the abillity to lock it in. I have tried going into the Mobile Networks settings and selecting WCDMA Only and also doing the *#*#4636#*#* and neither one will lock it into WCDMA. Anyone else having this issue or know of a workaround for this?

If ur in a edge based area where 3g is minimal,then setting to wcdma is the worst way to go. Wcdma will lock u into 3g/4g signals ONLY! So if your in edge area only,wcdma will not give u data or signal due to the fact the phone is searching for 3g/4g signals only. And GSM or cdma is a different ball park. Set to wcdma preferred and let it pick up what it can. If a 3g or "4g" signal is avaliable,it will automatically detect it and connect.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App

mattmiller said:
If ur in a edge based area where 3g is minimal,then setting to wcdma is the worst way to go. Wcdma will lock u into 3g/4g signals ONLY! So if your in edge area only,wcdma will not give u data or signal due to the fact the phone is searching for 3g/4g signals only. And GSM or cdma is a different ball park. Set to wcdma preferred and let it pick up what it can. If a 3g or "4g" signal is avaliable,it will automatically detect it and connect.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not that I don't have 3G in my area, its just that it only gives me 3 bars as opposed to EDGE which will give me full signal. When it's set on wcdma preferred, it will connect to 3G and after a few minutes switch over to EDGE. With my Captivate and the Inspire when I first got it and before I rooted it, I was able to lock it into only 3G. Somehow after flashing basically every rom in this forum, I can't get that setting to stick anymore.

Ok then flash the ruu of the rooted stock inspire. It is a pd98img.zip u can load and flash via bootloader. It will stay s-off and will flash updated radio and patches. Get your data fixed and GPS and then flash a rom afterwards. Attn1 has it posted in the development.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA App

Rob_Wing said:
Its not that I don't have 3G in my area, its just that it only gives me 3 bars as opposed to EDGE which will give me full signal. When it's set on wcdma preferred, it will connect to 3G and after a few minutes switch over to EDGE. With my Captivate and the Inspire when I first got it and before I rooted it, I was able to lock it into only 3G. Somehow after flashing basically every rom in this forum, I can't get that setting to stick anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here, I called AT&T and they said it's because the cell tower closest to my office is old and supports Edge only so my phone keeps attaching to that tower even though there are other towers in range (that will give me 3 bars of 3G) which are newer.
With the stock rom, even going into the testing menu and setting "WCDMA only", it kept me on the Edge network. I rooted and flashed a custom ROM (Android Revolution) and at first it was great. At the office I could force "WCDMA only" at my desk, when I went into the middle of the building or whatever I would just have no signal (which I was ok with).
Now with the newer versions of the ROM I could no longer force "WCDMA only"... And the OP basically ignores my questions when I ask. Something that worked fine, I flashed a new version of the ROM and it stopped working...doesn't take a genius to figure out it's probably something he changed in his ROM... Not to sound unappreciative of the developers here...they do great work. Just frustrating... >_<

eBay error :/

So, just bought an HD7 from eBay (in the UK) and I violated my normal rule of only buying things with a 'real' picture.
My 'unlocked' HD7 has just shown up and is T-Mobile branded. I know this doesn't mean it's locked, but I was under the impression that T-Mo in the UK didn't ever carry this phone so it really looks to me like it's from the US.
Now, I need some advice as to how acceptable this is going to be. My main concern is 3G bands. Now, with my UK SIM I'm seeing '3G' in the top left corner, which surprised me a little as I thought the bands were totally different.
I'm getting around 2/3rds of the download speed I was getting on my HTC Sensation in a quick spot test (~1Mbps vs ~1.5Mbps).
Any thoughts?

If your not using a T-Mobile sim and you still have a connection then the phone is unlocked but still branded. This wont cause you any problems that I know off.
Speed tests are a bit odd to do on mobiles and very unreliable.
Not sure what you mean by 3G Bands. 3G is 3G it should when you have a better signal up to H (HSDPA) which is the 7.5Mb speed if i remember right. If it only showed G then i would be worried.

Well, I get the unlocked bit, certainly works from that POV.
I've worked out the difference is HSPA, like you say, so that's what's missing

karnka said:
Well, I get the unlocked bit, certainly works from that POV.
I've worked out the difference is HSPA, like you say, so that's what's missing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HSDPA works on the same bands and standard 3G - in the UK is 2100MHz. If you're getting 3G but not HSDPA it's either a problem with the phones software not switching, or that the mast your phone has decided to use doesn't support HSDPA for whatever reason.
HSDPA is essentially a software update to the original 3G technology.

That's actually really helpful, thanks.
So, if I see _anything_ 3G related then all is good.

HSDPA should show as 3G+ icon. But OEMs can make the 3G+ icon show as just 3G, so you might be on HSDPA and even not know about it. Run some speed test when you have better signal strength

Indeed anything 3G related is all good.
HTC will normally replace 3G+ with a H, for obvious reasons. I don't know if TMO america have any weird definitions in place though.
Also, the maximum transfer speed of 3G is 386Kb/s, so your rating of 1Mb/s (equivalent to 1024Kb/s) suggests you're on HSDPA anyway.

[Q] Clean Rom Question [Network]

Hi Guys,
So I've been running Clean Rom for roughly 6 months now, still running version 5.1 (Android Version 4.0.4) on my HTC ONE XL.
My One XL is a Telstra branded phone and thus has the capability for 850MHz. I was running on the Vodafone network and therefore not using said band, however I have recently swapped over to Telstra (Was never with them in the first place).
Unfortunately I'm not seeing the gains in reception I was hoping for, and I am currently finding that when going to locations where there should be signal, albeit edge, crappy signal, I am receiving none. My question is, does Clean Rom disable the 850MHz frequency or does it still support it? Is there a way I can check whether I am accessing the 850MHz network, and if so, how? If it isn't am I able to turn on th 850MHz frequency?
Looking forward to getting this sorted. Cheers.

ROM shouldn't make much difference in band compatibility. Since your version supports 850 MHz for both 2G (EDGE) and 3G, it should work regardless of ROM, and you don't need to "turn it on". There are "secret codes" you can enter into the dialer that will tell you information about the bands, and also signal strength. Just use the XDA search function, and you should be able to find them.
You might see some slight improvement if you are not currently on a Jellybean radio, and flash one (if hboot 2.14 or higher, you will need to s-off). But I wouldn't bet on it making a huge difference.
What makes you think you should have (crappy) reception in the mentioned locations? From reception on another phone? Every phone is different (antenna design, etc.). Since you mentioned the reception at the location is already crappy, its probably more of a antenna issue than a ROM issue.

redpoint73 said:
ROM shouldn't make much difference in band compatibility. Since your version supports 850 MHz for both 2G (EDGE) and 3G, it should work regardless of ROM, and you don't need to "turn it on". There are "secret codes" you can enter into the dialer that will tell you information about the bands, and also signal strength. Just use the XDA search function, and you should be able to find them.
You might see some slight improvement if you are not currently on a Jellybean radio, and flash one (if hboot 2.14 or higher, you will need to s-off). But I wouldn't bet on it making a huge difference.
What makes you think you should have (crappy) reception in the mentioned locations? From reception on another phone? Every phone is different (antenna design, etc.). Since you mentioned the reception at the location is already crappy, its probably more of a antenna issue than a ROM issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure where you're located, Telstra is the largest Telco in Australia with the largest and best coverage. Vodafone unfortunately has a very bad reputation for reception. Swapping from Vodafone which does not use an 850MHz band to Telstra, which does, has netted me reverse effects. I am receiving worse reception, which should not be the case. If I go into fringe areas where edge is the best signal you receive, I will receive none, where as in town locations where more than the 850 band is used, I receive okay signal. Just seems like I'm not picking up the 850 band.

As I already mentioned, search for the "secret" dialer codes. There are codes that will tell you the cell tower signal, and I believe band, which sounds like what you need.

None of the dialer codes seem to allow me to see what particular frequency I'm using. Unless I'm just completely missing something? The only thing that seems to provide me with info on the radio only states Network Type and the DBM.

[Q] OnePlus One LTE BAND selection?

Is there a way to see and change the LTE BAND that my phone is on? Rogers support aws, 2600, 700. So I was wondering if I could manually change between them. The S5 has that option in the hidden menu, so I'm hoping I could do the same on this one.
Thanks.

The phone choose the band himself, if he don't find bands authorized by your phone company, he can't use them.

tonymtl said:
Is there a way to see and change the LTE BAND that my phone is on? Rogers support aws, 2600, 700. So I was wondering if I could manually change between them. The S5 has that option in the hidden menu, so I'm hoping I could do the same on this one.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
*#*#46363#*#* > Phone information > Set Preferred Network Type > 'LTE/GSM auto (PRL)'
That's as far as you can get in telling it what network to operate on. It won't let you select specific bands (at least not stock). Mine was set to 'TD-SCDMA, GSM and LTE' out of the box (international version) and since I don't plan to use my phone in China anytime soon, it didn't make sense for the phone to waste resources searching for a TD-SCDMA (China's homebrew 4G) signal. Haven't noticed much improvement to my LTE signal though, still the weakest radio I've seen in a 'flagship' in a while.

Thanks.
I am also on Rogers.
Does that mean when I am on the phone, it will revert to EDGE instead of 3g by using the LTE-edge setting?

I have major issues with reception on this phone.
LTE Works Fine but the 3G/H+ signal is awful, absolute disaster on this phone. It is extremely, extremely weak. And I lose coverage often and over 50% of the times my calls go straight to voicemail because Rogers uses 2g/3g for calling. The phone can't drop back to 2G or 3G in time to receive calls when on LTE
Rly frustrating. Have tried playing with all the settings.

Same issue
hashim71 said:
I have major issues with reception on this phone.
LTE Works Fine but the 3G/H+ signal is awful, absolute disaster on this phone. It is extremely, extremely weak. And I lose coverage often and over 50% of the times my calls go straight to voicemail because Rogers uses 2g/3g for calling. The phone can't drop back to 2G or 3G in time to receive calls when on LTE
Rly frustrating. Have tried playing with all the settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having issues with 3G H+ too. Dont know its CM issue or not coz I had nice H+ signals on Color OS...
Can't even use internet data. most of the time network drops after using internet for a bit.. Network just suddenly gone and after that it comes back with no internet. Internet comes back online after a while...
Really worried.. and annoyed coz can't seem to find any solve for this. Even Mahdi rom had this issue..

Help! Doogee X5 Pro modem cycles whenever accessed in LTE or 3G mode

I would love someone to help with this strange problem, before I throw this phone in the bin!
First the specs.
Doogee x5Pro, Android 5.1,
Baseband DOOGEE-X5pro.2015/10/08
Kernel version [email protected].2015.10.08
Build number DOOGEE X5pro-Android5.1-R08-2015.10.26
The phone works fine when I set Cellular Settings / Preferred network type to 2G. Of course it only works as a 2G phone in this mode.
However, if I set the Preferred network type to either 3G or 4G (recommended) then as soon as I try to make a call or send an SMS, the modem radio turns off and the call is immediately dropped or Messaging says the SMS service is unavailable. Occasionally the called phone will ring, but the call drops immediately. Sometimes the SMS does get through, but at my end it appears that the modem radio turns off and on again as soon as the Dialler or Messaging tries to use it. If someone tries to call me, the phone rings and caller-ID is displayed, but as soon as I answer, the modem radio cycles off and on again, and the call gets dropped.
If I am in an 4G LTE coverage area, then 4G data works fine (browsing was fast, Speedtest was showing 85+Mbps) but I still cannot make or receive calls, or send SMS's - as soon as I try, the modem radio cycles off and then on. If I am not in an LTE coverage area (but am in a 3G WCDMA coverage area), then the phone just constantly cycles showing 4G for an instant then 3G, then radio off, then radio on but no service, then 4G etc... - this cycle is very regular and takes about 53 seconds end-to-end. If wi-fi is on, this cycle only starts if the modem is accessed (e.g. by trying to make a call), or by turning wifi off and cellular data on. And of course I can't make or receive calls or send SMS's during this cycle, and even when the signal shows 3G I can't get any data connectivity. While it's doing this, if I go to Settings / SIM cards, the 'On/Off' slider moves to 'Off' when the radio cycles off, and then moves back to 'On' again.
In summary; in 3G or 4G preferred network mode and not in LTE coverage, whenever anything (calls, SMS or data) tries to use the modem it cycles off and on again. When in LTE coverage, data works but calls and SMS cause the modem to cycle. As I mentioned, 2G is fine.
I think I've tried most of the obvious things, and some not-so-obvious ones. These are the things I've tried so far.
Obvious things like reboot, battery out, reset to factory settings, wipe cache, clear application data. No change.
I swapped the SIM from Slot 1 (LTE/WCDMA) to Slot 2 (GSM) - the behaviour was exactly the same (this surprised me as it seemed to be LTE-related).
I put my SIM in a carrier's (Vodafone NZ) Samsung 4G phone and it worked fine, also it was fine in a Chinese-brand 3G phone. Then I put another Vodafone NZ 4G SIM in my phone and it had exactly the same problems, so I think it's the phone rather than the SIM or the carrier.
Because data works fine when in LTE coverage, and the phone does ring if called (but cycles the modem immediately when I answer the call), it seems the hardware is possibly working OK. So I assumed software or settings might be the cause.
I created new APN's using carrier-supplied settings. No change. I flashed various Doogee stock ROM versions (don't think there are any custom ones for this phone) and they all display the same problem, rooted or otherwise. I've used the engineering menus (*#*#3646633#*#* and *#*#4636#*#*) to change bands, network preferences and various other settings with no effect. 2G (GSM only) is the only one that works. I installed the Xposed Framework and Gravitybox module and had a play with some of the settings in there but again, no effect.
I don't know what else to try and I can't return the phone as it costs too much to send it back to China from New Zealand.
So any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I'm stuck with a not particularly useful 2G wi-fi phone.
Thanks in advance.

Just a bit of an update. I've discovered that 4G LTE works fine when in range and 2G works fine all of the time; but 3G just doesn't work at all and I have no idea why - I've searched the threads and tried all of the suggestions I could find that can be applied to this phone. As soon as anything tries to access the 3G radio (calls, SMS or data), the modem just 'reboots' (powers off and on again).
All of the other symptoms I've described are related to this. When out of (or in marginal) 4G coverage, it starts in 4G, falls back to 3G and that's when the modem 'reboots'. When in 4G range, data works fine but as soon as I make or recieve a call it needs to drop from 4G to 3G (I don't think we have VoLTE here) and that's when the modem 'reboots'.
So any ideas anyone? Is this likely to be a hardware problem with the phone?
Thanks.
(BTW the baseband appears to be MOLY.LR9.W1444.MD.LWTG.MP.V8.P33,2015/10/26 16:01)

Good to see another Kiwi with a Doogee X5 PRO. I have not seen these issues in Auckland but a few weeks ago I upgraded to R17 using this ROM :
www.needrom.com/download/doogee-x5-pro/
I noticed 3G and 4G are much improved and I could get both in either slot 1 or 2 (I use dual Voda SIMS).
Last week I went Android6 (32-bit) using this ROM:
www.needrom.com/download/android-6-0/
Using this ROM I can only get 3G and 4G in slot 1 and 2 is "locked" to 2G .. so I guess its software based. If your comfortable with flashing your device then do the R17 upgrade or see if its available OTA

nzjacob said:
Good to see another Kiwi with a Doogee X5 PRO. I have not seen these issues in Auckland but a few weeks ago I upgraded to R17 using this ROM :
www.needrom.com/download/doogee-x5-pro/
I noticed 3G and 4G are much improved and I could get both in either slot 1 or 2 (I use dual Voda SIMS).
Last week I went Android6 (32-bit) using this ROM:
www.needrom.com/download/android-6-0/
Using this ROM I can only get 3G and 4G in slot 1 and 2 is "locked" to 2G .. so I guess its software based. If your comfortable with flashing your device then do the R17 upgrade or see if its available OTA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for the tip - I've already tried the various ROMs on NEEDROM and currently have Android 6 installed, unfortunately the modem still exhibits exactly the same behaviour. But good to hear that yours works OK in NZ because that reinforces by belief that it must be a hardware issue (rather than a network one). Unfortunately this means the phone's only really any use as a WiFi 'phablet' or a 2G phone. So I've given up on it and bought a cheapo Voda Smart Prime instead, which does the basics OK - shame really as I've had Doogee's before and they've been really good. Oh well

I have just gotten an X5 Max Pro. I've noticed that I only have 3G service from my carrier in my area and for that reason I cannot receive calls if I set the favourite network type to 4G(recommended). I have to set the preferred network type to 3G in order to be able to receive calls, otherwise you will receive the "the phone you are calling is off or out of signal" notification, at the same time that I receive a text message from my carrier notifying the lost call.
To me it seems that the phone is not capable of downgrading the signal automatically to 3G when there is no 4G signal. However, I can make calls and receive text messages with no problems at all.
When I have 4G coverage, everything works just fine with the preferred network type set to 4G(recommended).
Is this a software or a hardware problem? I really don't know if it is related to the problems already described here with the x5 pro, but I have decided to post my experience. Maybe it will give some more hints about what is wrong with many Doogee x5 devices.
Thanks

Possible explanation & solution
Hi,
I may have an explanation and solution.
I have Doogee X5 Max Pro and I ran into similar problems. Doogee international did not respond to me, but their agent in Israel did.
Apparently in each cellular provider uses two frequencies: 2000 for outdoors, and 850 *or* 900 for indoors. High end phones support both 850 and 900 (along with the 2000). This model only supports 900 (and 2000), which means that you'd if your provider uses 850, you'd have a good reception outdoors, but a lousy one / none indoors (along with a higher battery consumption etc.).
The solution was to switch to a different provider that uses 900 frequency, and that indeed solved the problem (in Israel I switched to Partner - used to be a part of the Orange network) .
I hope that helps.
Yossi

yossiy said:
Hi,
I may have an explanation and solution.
I have Doogee X5 Max Pro and I ran into similar problems. Doogee international did not respond to me, but their agent in Israel did.
Apparently in each cellular provider uses two frequencies: 2000 for outdoors, and 850 *or* 900 for indoors. High end phones support both 850 and 900 (along with the 2000). This model only supports 900 (and 2000), which means that you'd if your provider uses 850, you'd have a good reception outdoors, but a lousy one / none indoors (along with a higher battery consumption etc.).
The solution was to switch to a different provider that uses 900 frequency, and that indeed solved the problem (in Israel I switched to Partner - used to be a part of the Orange network) .
I hope that helps.
Yossi
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Yossi hit the nail on the head there! Ouch!
In Oz we have Telstra on the 850MHz band and Optus etc on the 900MHz 3G band..
So Optus is OK but Telstra nay.
The trap is they may show heaps of signal strength but it is probably from the wrong band!
You can do everything except make or take a phone call!
A lot of problems with phones has reared it's ugly head since the 2G network shut down.
Unless you have plenty of 4G signal (which the various providers share the same bands), you would be pretty stuffed..
I wonder if firmware(Rom) changes could solve the problem ?
(I also have the Doogee x5 max pro..)